100

The construction of Europe is permeated by enduring paradoxes. As regards Europe?s parliamentary development, one paradox that cannot fail to attract the observer?s attention is the fact that the European Parliament continues to acquire increasing power in response to the Union?s democratic deficit even as the Union?s citizens display increasing indifference to European parliamentary elections. This gap between the constant strengthening of the process of formal of legal legitimation granted by treaties to the European Parliament and the way in which this progression is perceived leads us to ask two questions. First, how, why, and by virtue of whose power does this continuous increase in power of the European Parliament within the institutional setting of the European Union take place? Second, at a time when the process of European construction is becoming a constitutional one as well as a process that is not without conflicts, how far does support for the European Parliament?